Figure drawing 3 - Portrait journal

The outside assignment for figure drawing was to complete a sketchbook full of portraits throughout the semester. I absolutely loved this because I have always faces have always been one of my favorite things to draw. Over the semester I improved so much!

My first 5 sketches, each about 10-20 minutes. I took too much time outlining and trying to focus on likeness at first.

Trying a less exact side hatch style that I find relaxing and fun

People often have a certain, serious/ concentrated look while watching TV

Morgan is super focused in Walking Dead. She didn't notice me drawing her until Jackson decided to spill the beans

Adding some conte to add interest to a somewhat boring self portrait

Cute smile

Trying to work from the inside out: starting somewhere like the eyes or the nose and working towards the edge. Can be difficult but also helps improve skills and create less contoured drawings.

Working from the middle of the face out is trick, so sometimes features get skewed, especially when using pen.

I love playing with different pens. Pen is challenging and bold, I love using it because with it you want every mark to be worth the while

Capturing features in a more subtle, less detailed way, is fun

I like this somewhat illustrative /slightly dark and spooky portrait of Jackson

Working with a stick of graphite

Getting bored of shading and trying different techniques such as contour

Continuous line drawings

Jackson (far left) and his 3 roommates, Nick, Tyler, and Andrew. As seen above I draw Jackson all the time, so I decided to mix it up and draw Nick while he did homework. Then Tyler and Andrew wanted a portrait too! It was a lot of fun.

I really like this page, melding the faces into one

Trying new things

The effect of slightly dried out markers is interesting

My roommate and good friend Robyn!! Finally drew her as my last portrait, I'd been wanting to for a while.

Figure drawing - 2: Miscellaneous

One week we didn't go to figure drawing class during at night an instead met on a Saturday to attend the L.C. Bates Museum. It is this really cool natural history type small museum. It has all assortments of taxidermy animals and bugs, as well as sea creatures, shells, and rock. It was awesome to spend a day there drawing whatever we wanted!!

This is the subsequent drawing I did after being told to loosen up and draw in-> out. My teacher gave my some Mylar (smooth, non-absorbant) paper, some solvent (non-toxic paintbrush cleaner) and some swabs. She told me to explore and just draw. I loved this media!! I love how this deer turned out, it looks very cool in person.

My second Mylar + ink + solvent sketch of a caribou 

My second drawing. I was more carefully going about placing the birds and shading them. When my (amazing) figure drawing teacher came around to take a look she told me that I definitely have a good eye for drawing things correctly. Therefore, I DON'T NEED to out go about it so carefully, JUST DRAW! Don't contour or outline so much: work inside out and decide which edges to define or not.

My first drawing of a giant 4 ft clam shell and a huge swordfish caught by Ernest Hemingway(or at least belonging to him, not sure). I don't particularly like these sketches, I used conte, I do like the way I developed the shell, the the swordfish isn't workin for me

Practicing drawing hands.. I could only use pen, and I was supposed to start somewhere in the hand and work out towards the edges. Therefore, they can become warped, but they are interesting, and not too contoured.

Figure drawing - 1

I absolutely loved my figure drawing class. I have so many sketches from that class because we did lots of quick drawings and only a few long ones... So I will have to multiple post of my work, showing how I progressed from the beginning to the end of the class (quite a bit I think/hope)!

Graphite power and graphite stick

Graphite stick - showing some underlying bones

Quick study in graphite

Graphite - placing the leg bones accurately in the model

Graphite study

Quick study of the skeleton with graphite powder and graphite

Graphite powder + graphite quick poses

                                 

First day of class skeleton practice in graphite - contour only, no rendering. I needed to edit a bit more, this looks somewhat jumbled, and I have no tonal or mark variation.

Quick graphite studies

First day of class skeleton perspective

Bones

Putting the skeleton into our model - again, not nearly enough editing!

Human foot bones

Real quick gestures

                                   

First day of class skeleton - attempting but struggling to use perspective

Early drawing, way to much contour 

Charcoal and conte on toned paper

Charcoal and conte on toned paper

Charcoal and conte on toned paper

Charcoal and conte on toned paper

Pen drawing, emphasis on back leg muscles

Non-dominant hand quick studies with pen

Miniature figure from my head. Not so impressed with mine, which inspires me to continue to really practice figure drawing!